told her.

"My darling," he answered, with patient tenderness, "you know why I
have come--why it was impossible for me to keep away. I love you,
Princess, as a man loves but once in his life. Will you come to me?
Will you be my wife?"

The girl shook her head, and moved her hand with a gesture of denial;
words she had none.

"I know of what you are thinking, Princess. I know the idea that has
taken possession of your mind. You have heard of my former marriage,
and you know that the woman who was my wife still lives. Is it not
so?" She bent her head in mute assent. Thorne gazed at her pale,
resolute face with his brows knit heavily, and then continued:

"Listen to me, Princess. That woman--Ethel Ross--is my wife no longer,
even in name; she ceased to be my wife in fact two years ago. Our
lives have drifted utterly asunder. It was her will, and I acquiesced
in it, for she had never loved me, and I--when my idiotic infatuation
for her heartless, diabolical beauty passed, had ceased to love her.
At last, even my presence became a trouble to her, which she was at no
pains to conceal. The breach between us widened with the years, until
nothing remained to us but the galling strain of a useless fetter. Now
that is broken, and we are free,"--there was an exultant ring in his
voice, as though his freedom were precious to him.

"Were you bound, or free, that night at Shirley?" questioned the girl,
slowly and steadily.

A flush crept warmly over Thorne's dark face, and lost itself in the
waves of his hair. He realized that he would meet with more opposition
here than he had anticipated. No matter; the prize was worth fighting
for--worth winning at any cost. His determination increased with the
force opposed to it, and so did his desire.

"In heart and thought I was free, but in _fact_ I was bound," he
acknowledged. "The words I spoke on the steps that night escaped me
unaware. I was tortured by jealousy, and tempted by love. I had no
right to speak them then; nothing can excuse or palliate the weakness
which allowed me to. I should have waited until I could come to you
untrammeled--as now. I attempt no justification of my madness,
Princess. I have no excuse but my love, and can only sue for pardon.
You will forgive me, sweetheart"--using the old word tenderly--"for the
sake of my great love. It's my only plea"--his voice took a pleading
tone as he advanced the plea hardest of all for a woman to steel